CLEARING THE AIR

Joe Torre is not normally asked to sit in on Boss George’s annual Tampa meetings. He did attend this week however, and in his first comments to the media since the end of the World Serious, Torre shared what he told his Boss. According to Tyler Kepner in The Times:

“I talked about some of the things I didn’t appreciate, as far as some of the statements and things that went on all year,” Torre said during a conference call yesterday…”It was basically a one-sided conversation. The fact is I said something I needed to say and did it, I’d like to believe, in a diplomatic way.”

… “This is the last year of my contract,” Torre said. “I certainly am not politicking for an extension. I do not know if I’m going to do it after this year. But I’m looking forward to this next year. Hopefully all the baseball and all the good things that happen on the field will offset what happens off the field.

“I don’t know what those are going to be; none of us do. It was a little unusual this year. But when you own the ball club and you spend the money Mr. Steinbrenner spends, you understand the frustration. But I hope everybody is understanding of what it takes to win on a regular basis. I’m not complaining about it. I know we’ve been there every year. But I want to let people know it’s not that easy.”